A whole year went by with no new Marvel MCU content, a shock to the system for many fans who had been used to a steady stream of new films every year since 2008. But 2021 is looking to set the record straight by kicking off Phase Four of the biggest film franchise next to Star Wars…starting out with its first official TV show.
Now I know there have been plenty of TV series that have tied into the MCU such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, and Jessica Jones, but none of them have directly tied into the films in the way that the new Disney+ series are planning to. These shows aren’t just for people who want some extra Marvel Universe action with the occasional cameo from a bigger role, no, these series intend to be as integral to the MCU as the previous twenty-three films have been. I can’t think of a better way to kick this experiment off than with WandaVision.
WandaVision is a sitcom about Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and The Vision (Paul Bettany) following the events of Avengers: Endgame. But Vision’s dead right? That’s all part of the mystery. The time period keeps changing, the neighbours are acting weird, and Vision suspects Wanda is hiding something, but he can’t remember anything before sharing a beautiful home in Westview with his wife. Meanwhile Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Paris) is brought back into existence five years after Thanos used the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life in the galaxy, she is welcomed back into S.W.O.R.D., a military organisation set up by her mother Maria after her time spent aiding Carol Danvers. She is informed that a town, Westview, has been taken hostage by Wanda Maximoff and has some kind of field surrounding it. On the inside of this field Wanda has created her own world, where she is the director of her very own sitcom. S.W.O.R.D. wants to know what threat she poses to the rest of humanity, and how she has resurrected Vision.
Now I know there have been plenty of TV series that have tied into the MCU such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, and Jessica Jones, but none of them have directly tied into the films in the way that the new Disney+ series are planning to. These shows aren’t just for people who want some extra Marvel Universe action with the occasional cameo from a bigger role, no, these series intend to be as integral to the MCU as the previous twenty-three films have been. I can’t think of a better way to kick this experiment off than with WandaVision.
WandaVision is a sitcom about Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and The Vision (Paul Bettany) following the events of Avengers: Endgame. But Vision’s dead right? That’s all part of the mystery. The time period keeps changing, the neighbours are acting weird, and Vision suspects Wanda is hiding something, but he can’t remember anything before sharing a beautiful home in Westview with his wife. Meanwhile Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Paris) is brought back into existence five years after Thanos used the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life in the galaxy, she is welcomed back into S.W.O.R.D., a military organisation set up by her mother Maria after her time spent aiding Carol Danvers. She is informed that a town, Westview, has been taken hostage by Wanda Maximoff and has some kind of field surrounding it. On the inside of this field Wanda has created her own world, where she is the director of her very own sitcom. S.W.O.R.D. wants to know what threat she poses to the rest of humanity, and how she has resurrected Vision.
The series runs for a total of nine episodes and the first seven are incredible. It’s Marvel at its most creative yet, testing their abilities in new ways to create new ways to branch Marvel content out into things other than typical superhero films. Whilst they’ve definitely achieved that to an extent in the films with spy thrillers like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and comedies like Guardians of the Galaxy; WandaVision represents a major jump into an entirely different genre, the sitcom, and deconstructs it in ways that are only possible with the superhero genre.
Each of the early episodes takes place in a different decade, starting out with the fifties and moving through to the noughties. Characters’ personalities change, the set changes, the costumes change, the dialogue alters to fit the time period, and the themes the episodes handle become increasingly more complex and modern as time progresses. Yet despite all this constant shifting the show feels extremely cohesive. It pulls at all the most identifiable strands of iconic sitcoms from the eras such as Full House and Modern Family and uses them in ways that simply would not be possible with a traditional sitcom.
It also uses these tropes against the viewer, keeping them in the dark for the reveals that come along later down the line, without it ever feeling like these twists are contrived because in reality the breadcrumbs have been there for you to follow all along.
I started the last paragraph by saying the first seven episodes were incredible, what about the last two? Whilst they’re certainly not bad, in fact I still enjoyed them a lot, they drop the whole sitcom schtick and fall more in line with what we expect from Marvel content. Episode eight is basically one massive exposition dump to explain anything that hadn’t already been addressed in time for the final episode which sees Wanda and Vision confront two forces that threaten the peace in Westview. This final episode in particular feels underwhelming as I had hoped for more than just an hour-long fistfight, especially one as underwhelming as what we get. Both parties are flying round Westview firing lasers at each other, it’s very Man of Steel, and as a result I didn’t connect with what was happening. All of the effort that had gone into making WandaVision feel unique in the first seven episodes was absent in the final two; and whilst they were still enjoyable, they weren’t as fresh or exciting as the previous episodes.
Each of the early episodes takes place in a different decade, starting out with the fifties and moving through to the noughties. Characters’ personalities change, the set changes, the costumes change, the dialogue alters to fit the time period, and the themes the episodes handle become increasingly more complex and modern as time progresses. Yet despite all this constant shifting the show feels extremely cohesive. It pulls at all the most identifiable strands of iconic sitcoms from the eras such as Full House and Modern Family and uses them in ways that simply would not be possible with a traditional sitcom.
It also uses these tropes against the viewer, keeping them in the dark for the reveals that come along later down the line, without it ever feeling like these twists are contrived because in reality the breadcrumbs have been there for you to follow all along.
I started the last paragraph by saying the first seven episodes were incredible, what about the last two? Whilst they’re certainly not bad, in fact I still enjoyed them a lot, they drop the whole sitcom schtick and fall more in line with what we expect from Marvel content. Episode eight is basically one massive exposition dump to explain anything that hadn’t already been addressed in time for the final episode which sees Wanda and Vision confront two forces that threaten the peace in Westview. This final episode in particular feels underwhelming as I had hoped for more than just an hour-long fistfight, especially one as underwhelming as what we get. Both parties are flying round Westview firing lasers at each other, it’s very Man of Steel, and as a result I didn’t connect with what was happening. All of the effort that had gone into making WandaVision feel unique in the first seven episodes was absent in the final two; and whilst they were still enjoyable, they weren’t as fresh or exciting as the previous episodes.
Olsen and Bettany haven’t had all that much of an opportunity to shine in the MCU up until this point. Bettany has been around since the original Iron Man in the form of Tony Stark’s A.I Jarvis but didn’t have a physical presence until Avengers: Age of Ultron which also introduced Olsen as Wanda/Scarlet Witch. Since then, the two characters have been very much on the sidelines. But WandaVision gives them the opportunity to really sink their teeth into the roles for the first time since they donned the costumes. Olsen is the star of the show and finally made me care about Wanda as a character, something that the MCU films had failed to make me do.
When looked at as a standalone product, WandaVision is excellent genre breaking entertainment that has somethng for everyone, regardless of how much you care about superheroes and the MCU. But as part of the MCU WandaVision is a shining example of what can be achieved when Marvel break the mould. This is a fantastic start to Phase Four and it sets a promising outlook for the forthcoming Marvel series on Disney+.
When looked at as a standalone product, WandaVision is excellent genre breaking entertainment that has somethng for everyone, regardless of how much you care about superheroes and the MCU. But as part of the MCU WandaVision is a shining example of what can be achieved when Marvel break the mould. This is a fantastic start to Phase Four and it sets a promising outlook for the forthcoming Marvel series on Disney+.